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Homemade Play Dough

Kids loving playing with finger paint, modeling clay or slime. But buying these items and replacing them can get expensive. There is a much cheaper alternative.

"It's much easier to use things I already have around the house, that I'm already buying and spend pennies to put this together myself and the kids have just as much fun," said mom Tiffany Arnett.

The moms from "Macaroni Kid" love saving money. They work together to help others do the same.

"Macaroni Kids is a free email newsletter and website that highlights family friendly events and businesses in your local area," said mom Lindsay Flagan, "There's over 500 publisher moms across the country we offer great giveaways for family and provide them with fun exciting ideas for what they do."

They found one of the best ways to save is by getting creative.

"Today we are going to save families money by making some fun activities for your kids with items you probably already have in your kitchen," said Lindsay.

You won't believe how easy it is to make molding clay.

Recipe for Play Dough or Molding Clay
Our recipe costs about 50 cents to make. In the store, we found a six pack of a similar product for $7.

Directions: First add about 10-15 drops of food coloring to water. Mix all of the remaining ingredients in a pan with food coloring water. Stir over a medium heat until it becomes a soft ball. Let it cool down and you have modeling clay!

Recipe for Homemade Finger Paint
It costs about 25 cents to make. In the stores we found a finger paint kit for $8.

Directions: put the water, corn starch and the sugar in a saucepan and stir constantly for five minutes over low heat. Once it turns into a clear, smooth gel remove from heat and add dishwashing soap. Once that cools completely pour it into individual containers and add your food coloring and then it's ready to play with!

Recipe for Homemade Slime
It costs about $1 to make. In the store, a pack of slime runs about $8.

Directions: in one container you are going to mix half a cup of warm water, a bottle of glue and unsweetened kool-aid. And in another container you are going to mix 1 cup of warm water and your borax. Once both containers are mixed you are going to combine them together and mix them up together by hand. It's going to become slime in your hands. You have a little bit of extra juice it will dump in the sink. The longer you play with it, the harder it will be.